Pride Points

Highlights of leadership in healthcare

Cleveland Clinic clinicians and researchers have made major contributions to healthcare in our institution’s more than 100 years of history. Many were the first of their kind or at the forefront of innovation. Here are some highlights from the long roster of Cleveland Clinic achievements:

• Development of the condenser dosimeter, for patient safety in radiology (1928).
• First in U.S. to identify Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder (1931).
• Isolation of serotonin, a neurotransmitter affecting body and mood (1948).
• Identification of carpal tunnel syndrome pathology and a diagnostic test for the condition (1951).
• Early advocacy of conservative surgical techniques for breast and other cancers (1950s).
• First renovascular surgery to treat hypertension (1950s).
• Pioneering “stopped heart” open-heart surgery (1956).
• Invention of the disposable twin-coil dialysis machine (1956).
• Synthesis of angiotensin II, a hormone affecting blood pressure (1957).
• Demonstration that cytotoxic drugs can safely be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (1957).
• Establishment of enterostomal therapy as a nursing specialty (1958).
• Development of selective cine-coronary angiography (1958).
• Creation of a diet to reduce blood cholesterol levels, part of National Diet-Heart Study (1958-1968).
• Establishment of the feasibility of large-scale cadaver donor use in kidney transplant (1963).
• First published coronary artery bypass surgery (1967).
• Key cardiac bypass innovation: use of internal thoracic artery as bypass conduit (1971).
• Establishment of world’s first computerized registry of cardiac diagnosis and treatment (1972).
• First hospital Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology (1976).
• Discovery of a brain-mapping technique to locate the site of epileptic seizures (1980s).
• Invention of the most widely used surgical retractor for mitral valve surgery (1980s).
• Modification of a tip used on aortic cannula, resulting in fewer strokes after surgery (1980s).
• Invention of an automatic drug delivery device for postoperative patients (1987).
• World’s first combined mitral valve repair and Cox-maze procedure (1990s).
• Aortic valvuloplasty, allowing heart valves to be repaired rather than replaced (1991).
• Invention of the “sonic wand” to pinpoint brain tumors for surgery (1992).
• Using hypothermia to more safely prolong circulatory arrest in cardiac surgery (1995).
• First minimally invasive aortic valve surgery (1996).
• First successful larynx transplant (1998).
• First robot-assisted tubal reanastomosis (2000).
• Use of the CyberKnife® targeted radiation system for treatment of early-stage lung cancer (2003).
• First minimally invasive procedure combining mitral valve replacement with radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation (2006).
• World’s largest experience in bronchial artery revascularization in lung transplant (2007).
• Study linking a widely used diabetes drug (rosiglitazone) with diabetes, leading to FDA restriction of its use (2007).
• First single-port laparoscopic colon resection entirely through a single incision in the navel (2007).
• First single-port laparoscopic donor kidney removal through navel incision (2008).
• Discovery that damaged brain cells can regenerate (2008).
• First molecular test for thyroid cancer (2008).
• First near-total face transplant in U.S. (2008).
• First transvaginal kidney removal (2009).
• First FDA-approved transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the U.S., and subsequent refinements in approach (2011).
• Discovery linking intestinal microbes’ breakdown of a common dietary fat with an increased risk of heart disease (2011).
• Demonstration that bariatric surgery controls diabetes (2012).
• First transcatheter tricuspid valved stent implantation (2016).
• World’s first deep-brain stimulation surgery to restore function after a stroke (2017).
• First baby in North America delivered following a deceased-donor uterine transplant (2019).
• World’s first robotic single-port kidney transplant (2019).
• Midwest’s first minimally invasive removal of a liver segment from a living donor for liver transplant (2019).
• Clinical trial of first-of-its kind vaccine to prevent breast cancer begins (2021).
• First use of tri-vector facial reanimation technique to treat congenital paralysis in a pediatric patient (2021).
• Second-ever successful fetal surgery to remove a tumor affixed to 27-week-old fetus’s heart (2021).
• Two highly complex intestinal transplants, each a first of its kind, to treat a patient with a rare cancer and another with bowel dysfunction (2021).
• World’s first implantation of a leadless pacemaker-defibrillator system to treat sudden cardiac arrest (2021).
• Landmark Cleveland Clinic Brain Study is launched to better understand how neurological diseases develop, reshaping prevention and treatment (2022).
• First implantation of the TricValve® Transcatheter Bicaval Valves System in a patient in North America for severe tricuspid regurgitation and right heart failure (2022).
• Research review reveals the degree to which climate change and air pollution are worsening neurological diseases globally (2022).
• Installation at Cleveland Clinic of the first private-sector, on-site, IBM-managed quantum computer in the U.S., and the first devoted to healthcare research (2022).
• Study shows bariatric surgery significantly reduces risks of obesity-related cancers (2022).
• Experimental “gene silencing” therapy reduces blood levels of lipoprotein(a), a key driver of heart disease risk, by up to 98% (2022).
• Advanced data analysis using artificial intelligence identifies possible new uses for existing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, atrial fibrillation, COVID-19 and others (2022).
• Initial results from ongoing Professional Athletes Brain Study show functional and structural brain changes caused by boxers’ repetitive head injuries and the potential for stabilization and improvement after impacts cease (2022).
• National clinical trial tests a new therapy for treatment-resistant prostate cancer based on a Cleveland Clinic molecular discovery about the disease process (2023).